Industry Leader

Industry Leader articles are written by executives at biopharma companies, consultancies, research firms, and companies that provide services or products to sponsors. The topics are nonpromotional and focused on industrywide business issues.

Many parents can tell a story about the lengths they’ve gone to help their children when no doctor could provide an answer. But there’s one story that stands out to me above the rest because it really drives home the vital need for data sharing, digital collaboration, and the establishment of a connected health ecosystem in the life sciences industry.

Often when we think about inefficiencies in the clinical trial process, we focus on the role of the sponsor or CRO, a particular aspect of the value chain, or new technologies that promote data sharing and faster decision making. While these are critical aspects that drive day-to-day operations, there is another aspect of the value chain that we may be neglecting: the patient side.

One of the most vexing and common problems HR professionals face is acquiring and training talent for specific skilled positions, only to see that talent, and the time and money invested in them, walk out the door too soon.

The very nature of many scientific processes creates habitual behaviors. Often these habits are effectively passed from senior lab generations to younger ones. Old habits can be hard to break, especially in a time-pressured lab environment.

Although the history of drug development contains many stories of serendipitous discovery, critical advances often emerge by setting out to address specific challenges. Today, many challenges associated with older drugs are being solved with new delivery technologies.

Any biotech or life sciences company in Boston — early-stage or mature — is no stranger to Kendall Square’s lab space squeeze. As the top-performing lab market in the U.S., Kendall Square is especially sought after by life sciences companies — ranging from emerging startups to Big Pharma.

Oncology has always been the front runner in personalized medicine, so this is where targeted therapies and diagnostics have, for the most part, been focused. However, there is new activity outside this area where biomarker and targeted approaches are proving successful.

Even though the U.S. economy continued to strengthen in 2015, many public investors sat on the sidelines grappling with global economic and political concerns and uncertainty surrounding the Fed’s policy concerning interest rates.